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Don Cherry
Don Cherry was born in Oklahoma City, OK in 1936 and raised in Los Angeles, where he first began to play the trumpet and later piano. According to Cherry, his upbringing had everything to do with his interest in music:
"Yeah, well I was fortunate to have such great parents…because they've always been around music. My Father was a bartender, and he was very much into the music of the swing period. That whole groove of music and ballrooms and dance and what it meant in the late 30's and up into the 40s. So I was raised around all that type of music. But what was happening after especially moving to Watts, what was happening in our neighborhood, there was musicians…Dexter Gordon, Wardell Grey, Sonny Criss, all these people that were from the neighborhood…and what was happening in rhythm and blues…"
Don cut his teeth on bebop, like most young musicians of his generation. In one of those historic moments that defy reason, Don met young saxophonist Ornette Coleman in a record store on 103rd Street, and was soon playing with Coleman's seminal quartet which also included bassist Charlie Haden and drummer Billy Higgins. The group cut the landmark album Something Else!!! , ushering in the new Free Jazz movement. The group recorded several other albums and free jazz became an established jazz innovation during the 1960s. Cherry worked with other artists, including John Coltrane, Archie Shepp, and Albert Ayler, who were all becoming instrumental in the greatest developments in jazz music since the birth of bebop.
By the dawn of the 70s, Cherry was touring Europe, Asia, and Africa regularly and becoming versed in the musical heritage of a variety of countries. He began learning to play many different instruments, including wooden flutes and the doussn'gouni, a kind of cross between a guitar and a sitar. It was at this time that Cherry began to play the Pakistani pocket trumpet, a miniature trumpet of approximately 8" in length. He began to play the instrument extensively, and it became his favorite. The tone was quite unusual, as was Cherry's facility to play a flurry of notes without appearing to break a sweat, a la Miles Davis. But his sound was a bit more refined, sweeter, and even more laid back than Davis' (!) partly because of his unusual choice of instrument.
Cherry began to incorporate influences from various ethnic musics into his own jazz work and created performances with his Swedish wife, Moki, that were not only musical but also visual. Much of what Cherry did in the 70s laid the groundwork for what has come to be known as "world music". During the 1980s and 90s his stature as a figure in the world music movement grew, and he played and recorded prolifically. He formed a new quartet with Charlie Haden, Ed Blackwell (who had played with Ornette Coleman as well) and Dewey Redman. They revisited the work done by the original Coleman quartet and extended the concepts begun there. He also formed a trio, Codona, with Collin Walcott and Nana Vasconcelos.
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Don Cherry: Where Is Brooklyn? & Eternal Rhythm - Revisited
by Stefano Merighi
Nel percorso artistico di molti, è decisivo il rapporto tra emancipazione ed auto-affermazione. Il jazz moderno è spesso testimone di una dialettica feconda tra individualismo e trama collettiva, ma è dirimente il tema dell'originalità. “Se sei come tutti gli altri, a che serve il jazz?," diceva spesso Monk. E un vero “percorso," costellato da innumerevoli stazioni, è stato quello di Don Cherry, mai del tutto soddisfatto delle sue conquiste, costantemente messe in discussione. Ammesso e non concesso che Cherry sia ...
read moreArchie Shepp, Don Cherry, John Thicai, Don Moore, J.C. Moses: Copenhagen 1963 Revisited. Live Jazzhus Montmartre
by Stefano Merighi
Questo concerto registrato al Jazzhus Montmartre di Copenhagen risale a una settimana esatta prima dell'assassinio di JF Kennedy a Dallas. E già questo colloca il nostro ascolto in un contesto, in un'atmosfera specifica. Ma in quel 1963 venne assassinato anche Medgar Evers (il 12 giugno), tra i più autorevoli attivisti afroamericani, freddato da un suprematista bianco e celebrato in questo disco dal brano di Archie Shepp “The Funeral." Shepp sosteneva che la musica, sempre, è sia un fenomeno ...
read moreCherry, Redman, Haden and Blackwell: Opening The Doors Of Perception
by Chris May
ECM's audiophile vinyl reissue series Luminessence has a simple mission statement: it is to showcase albums that have “changed perceptions of creative music making." The series kicked off in April 2023 with Kenny Wheeler's Gnu High (1976) and Nana Vasconcelos' Saudade (1979). These are to be followed towards the end of June 2023 with Old And New Dreams' Old And New Dreams (1979) and Gary Burton's The New Quartet (1973). Some of the Luminessence albums will come in facsimiles of ...
read moreOrnette Coleman: Genesis of Genius: The Contemporary Albums
by Jeff Kaliss
For many an Ornette Coleman devotee, devotion was pledged with the singular saxophonist's The Shape of Jazz to Come (Atlantic). It was recorded in May and released in November of 1959, and it's a matter of when in our life we caught up with it. For some of us, that's when we first felt liberated by jazz. That album, produced by Nesuhi Ertegun, remains a hard act to follow, even for Coleman himself. Or to precede. But “Hollywood ...
read moreJazz Not War: Part 2
by Ludovico Granvassu
This time we'll let music do all the talking because it's hard to find words that can channel what's going on. If anything it's in times like this that we are reminded about the power of music. If anything it's in times like these that we are reminded about the power of music. And jazz, in particular, has a long history of being inspired by challenging events and human struggles, distilling beauty out of the harshest circumstances.PlaylistBen Allison ...
read moreDon Cherry: Complete Communion & Symphony for Improvisers Revisited
by Stefano Merighi
Di fronte a questi gioielli di Don Cherry degli anni '60 che cosa si può scrivere ancora? Si può solamente invitare ad ascoltarli con orecchie ricettive e lasciarsi andare all'emozione, come scriveva Nat Hentoff nelle sue note originali per Complete Communion, senza perdere molto tempo in analisi formali poco utili. Questa edizione della collana Ezz-thetics fa scorrere per un'ora e venti minuti due opere manifesto della poetica del compositore-improvvisatore-cornettista e polistrumentista, che all'epoca coordinava organici smaglianti ...
read moreOpen Mike Night
by Patrick Burnette
We don't pen up or force-feed our co-host. This podcast is proud to say we use only free-range Mike. And when Mike's in the driver's seat, you never know what odd alleyways you might go down. Today's 'cast looks at two generations of Cherry's, the third appearance on this show of Kemet's best-loved offspring... and an album-length cover of Abbey Road? Brace yourselves, partners..Playlist Discussion of Don Cherry's album Eternal Rhythm (MPS) 5:50 Discussion of David Ornette Cherry's ...
read moreCaz Plak To Release Don Cherry Trio 'The ORTF Recordings Paris 1971' On Vinyl
Source:
Matthew Hutchison
The second chapter of Caz Plak's ambitious Turkish Jazz Trilogy will be released next month with three region-specific vinyl LP releases of The ORTF Recordings Paris 1971 by Don Cherry Trio, in line with Caz Plak's curatorial efforts in showcasing the far-reach of Turkish Jazz's influence. The Istanbul-based label has licensed two recordings of Don Cherry's work from the archives of the legendary Parisian jazz label BYG Records. These recordings feature joint performances with long-time Don Cherry Trio members, Turkish ...
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Jazz Musician of the Day: Don Cherry
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Don Cherry's birthday today!
Don Cherry was born in Oklahoma City, OK in 1936 and raised in Los Angeles, where he first began to play the trumpet and later piano. According to Cherry, his upbringing had everything to do with his interest in music: “Yeah, well I was fortunate to have such great parents…because they've always been around music. My Father was a bartender, and he was very much into the music of the swing ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Don Cherry
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Don Cherry's birthday today!
Don Cherry was born in Oklahoma City, OK in 1936 and raised in Los Angeles, where he first began to play the trumpet and later piano. According to Cherry, his upbringing had everything to do with his interest in music: “Yeah, well I was fortunate to have such great parents…because they've always been around music. My Father was a bartender, and he was very much into the music of the swing ...
read more
Don Cherry in Copenhagen, 1965
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Throughout his career, Don Cherry favored the stubby but warm pocket cornet and was most closely identified with the free jazz and avant-garde jazz movements. In the late 1950s, he recorded with Ornette Coleman (Something Else!!!, Tomorrow Is the Question!, The Shape of Jazz to Come, Change of the Century, This Is Our Music), Paul Bley (The Fabulous Paul Bley Quintet) and John Coltrane (The Avant-Garde). In the '60s, he recorded additional albums with Coleman as well as with Steve ...
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Jazz Musician of the Day: Don Cherry
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Don Cherry's birthday today!
Don Cherry was born in Oklahoma City, OK in 1936 and raised in Los Angeles, where he first began to play the trumpet and later piano. According to Cherry, his upbringing had everything to do with his interest in music: “Yeah, well I was fortunate to have such great parents…because they've always been around music. My Father was a bartender, and he was very much into the music of the swing ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Don Cherry
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Don Cherry's birthday today!
Don Cherry was born in Oklahoma City, OK in 1936 and raised in Los Angeles, where he first began to play the trumpet and later piano. According to Cherry, his upbringing had everything to do with his interest in music: “Yeah, well I was fortunate to have such great parents…because they\'ve always been around music. My Father was a bartender, and he was very much into the music of the swing ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Don Cherry
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Don Cherry's birthday today!
Don Cherry was born in Oklahoma City, OK in 1936 and raised in Los Angeles, where he first began to play the trumpet and later piano. According to Cherry, his upbringing had everything to do with his interest in music: “Yeah, well I was fortunate to have such great parents…because they\'ve always been around music. My Father was a bartender, and he was very much into the music of the swing ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Don Cherry
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Don Cherry's birthday today!
Don Cherry was born in Oklahoma City, OK in 1936 and raised in Los Angeles, where he first began to play the trumpet and later piano. According to Cherry, his upbringing had everything to do with his interest in music: “Yeah, well I was fortunate to have such great parents…because they\'ve always been around music. My Father was a bartender, and he was very much into the music of the swing ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Don Cherry
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Don Cherry's birthday today!
Don Cherry was born in Oklahoma City, OK in 1936 and raised in Los Angeles, where he first began to play the trumpet and later piano. According to Cherry, his upbringing had everything to do with his interest in music: “Yeah, well I was fortunate to have such great parents…because they\'ve always been around music. My Father was a bartender, and he was very much into the music of the swing ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Don Cherry
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Don Cherry's birthday today! Don Cherry was born in Oklahoma City, OK in 1936 and raised in Los Angeles, where he first began to play the trumpet and later piano. According to Cherry, his upbringing had everything to do with his interest in music: “Yeah, well I was fortunate to have such great parents…because they\'ve always been around music. My Father was a bartender, and he was very much into the music of the swing ...
read more
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Don Cherry
Instrument: Trumpet
Born: November 18, 1936
Died: October 19, 1995
